HONITON

From White's Devonshire Directory of 1850

HONITON, an ancient borough and market town, which has
long been celebrated for the manufacture of beautiful lace,
is picturesquely situated on rising ground, on the south-eastern
side of the river Otter, 16 miles E.N.E. of Exeter, 9 miles W. by
N. of Axminster, 16 miles E.S.E. of Tiverton, 152 W.S.W. of London,
and nearly 10 miles E.S.E. of Collumpton Station on the Bristol and
Exeter Railway. The town is well-built, and consists chiefly of one
broad street, nearly a mile in length, mostly built since the
destructive fires of 1747 and 1765, the former of which
consumed three parts of the town, and the latter destroyed 180
houses. The town also suffered from fire in 1672 and 1754. It was a
great thoroughfare from London to Exeter, before the opening of the
abovenamed railway, and is now well paved and lighted, and has many
good inns and well stocked shops. It has been much improved during
the present century, and the higher parts of it command delightful
views of the Otter valley, which presents a fine expanse of fertile
corn and pasture lands, and boldly swelling hills, interwoven with
that network of luxuriant hedge rows for which Devon is so famous.
Its parish and borough are co-extensive, and comprise 3046A.
2R. 2P. of land, and upwards of 4000 inhabitants;- the population
being 2377 in 1801; 3509, in 1831; and 3895, in 1841. Honiton gives
name to a large Union, a Polling and County Court District, and a
Petty Sessional Division; the latter of which comprises the
18 parishes of Awliscombe, Branscombe, Buckerell, Comb-Rawleigh,
Cotleigh, Dunkeswell, Farway, Feniton, Gittisham, Honiton, Luppitt,
Monkton, North and South Leigh, Offwell, Upottery, Widworthy, and
Yarcombe, for which the county magistrates hold petty sessions here
monthly, at the King's Arms Inn. The Mayor and ex-Mayor are
magistrates for the borough. The Market House, for the sale
of corn, cheese, butter, poultry, &c., is in the centre of the
town, and over it is a large Public Room. It was built about
25 years ago, by the late Paving Trust Commissioners, at the cost
of more than £2000. The market, held every Saturday,
is extensively supplied with corn, cattle, and all sorts of
provisions, especially butter, of which great quantities are sent
to London. Two great markets, for cattle, &c., are held
the second Saturday in April, and the Saturday before the 18th of
October; and a large annual fair on the Wednesday after July
19th. The Gas Works were constructed in 1835, at the cost of
£2700, raised in £25 shares: and the consumers are
supplied at the rate of 9s. per 1000 cubic feet. The town possessed
the advantage of a market as early as the reign of King John, who
changed the market day from Sunday to Saturday. It obtained the
grant of a fair from the lord of the manor, in 1257, and is said to
have been the first town in Devon at which serges were made.
Both this manufacture, and that of lace, are supposed to
have been introduced here by the Lollards, who came to England
during the religious persecutions in Flanders, in the reign of
Elizabeth. (See page 63.) The serge trade went to decay many years
ago; but the lace manufacture still flourishes here, though
not so extensively as formerly. Much of the rich and beautiful
fabric called Honiton Point Lace, and sometimes bone or
thread lace, is made in the town and in this and other parts of
the county. This lace sells at from 1s. to upwards of a guinea per
yard; and the best kind was formerly made entirely from the finest
Antwerp thread, which once sold as high as £70 per pound
weight. An inferior kind of lace, made of British thread, in the
villages along the coast, is called Trolley lace. In the
early part of the present century, the lace manufacturers of
Honiton employed about 21500 women and children in the town and
neighbouring villages; but the introduction of a cheaper article,
about 30 years ago, made of bobbin net, by machinery, gave a great
check to this domestic manufacture, which has lately somewhat.
revived in various parts of the county, under the patronage of her
present Majesty, and the late Dowager Queen Adelaide. Honiton has a
pottery of brown earthenware, a tannery, a brewery, an iron
foundry, three corn mills, several maltkilns, and a branch of the
National Provincial Bank of England. Its own local BANK, which was
many years carried on by Messrs. Flood and Lott, has lately
failed in liabilities amounting to £228,000, with
assets amounting to about £220,000; but of the latter,
£33,000 are doubtful balances, and £143,000
bad. The liabilities will be reduced by £86,000 in the
partners' credit balances, so that the loss of the creditors will
be less than £80,000, if the doubtful debts are recovered,
and the bankruptcy is economically managed. The assizes were held
at Honiton in 1590, on account of the plague being at Exeter, and
seventeen criminals were executed. On July 25th, 1644, King Charles
was at Honiton with his army on his route westward; and again on
Sept. 23rd, on his return. Sir Thomas Fairfax halted here with his
army on his march into Devon, Oct. 14th, 1645; but, happily, the
town was not the scene of any fatal conflict during the civil
wars.

The Manor of Honiton was possessed by Drago, a Saxon, but
was given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother, Robert Earl
of Moreton. Henry I. gave it to Richard de Rivers, Earl of Devon.
Isabel, Countess of Devon sold it to Edward I., who gave it to Sir
Gilbert de Knovill. It afterwards passed, probably by purchase, to
Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon. It remained with the Courtenay
family till sold by the late Viscount Courtenay, about 1810. Joseph
Locke, Esq., M.P., one of the borough representatives, is now lord
of the manor, but many other freeholders have estates in the
parish, and some of them have neat houses here. The manor was
anciently parcel of the barony of Plympton, and its lords had the
power of inflicting capital punishment. The estates called
Batteshorne, Littletown, Northcote, Blanicombe, &c.,
belong to various owners. An old legend relates that, at an
early period, nearly all the women of Honiton were barren, and that
to remedy this evil, they were enjoined by the priests to repair to
St. Margaret's chapel, and pass one whole day and night in prayer,
when by means of a vision, they would become pregnant. The arms
of the borough seem to allude to this legend, as they represent
a pregnant woman kneeling to an idol, with an obstetric hand above
them; and the very name of the town is said to refer to it, as
honi, in the old Norman French, signified shame or disgrace.

BOROUGH.- Honiton is an ancient borough by prescription,
and till 1846 was governed by a portreeve, bailiff, and
other officers, elected annually on Michaelmas-day, at the court
leet of the manor. It first returned two members to parliament in
the 28th of Edward the First, and sent two others to a subsequent
parliament, after which it neglected this privilege for nearly 400
years, until the 16th of Charles I., when, through the influence of
Wm. Pole., Esq., it was restored. The right of election was in all
the householders; but for a time they were disfranchised by a
charter of James I., which instituted a mayor and a select number
of pocket freemen, consisting of country gentlemen, to whom the
right of election was confined. This obnoxious charter was soon
abolished, and the borough remained under its portreeve till Nov.,
1846, when it received a Royal Charter of Incorporation, in
accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.
By this charter, the borough is divided into two wards, and
placed under the government of a Town Council, consisting of a
mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The
boundaries of the borough previous to the passing of the
Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832, were uncertain, but they
were extended by that act so as to comprise the whole parish.
Before the passing of this act, the right of election was in the
male householders not receiving alms, but paying scot and lot, and
boiling their own pots, from which they were called
potwallers, or pot-wallopers. The registered lists of
borough voters entitled to vote for the two parliamentary
representatives, in 1949, comprised 205 occupiers of houses of the
yearly value of 310 or upwards, and 399 potwallers.; but many of
the former are also on the list of the latter. The total number on
the register in 1837 was 455, of whom 372 were potwallers. The
latter, who have enjoyed the elective franchise since 1831, may
retain it for life, as long as they remain householders, and are
never excluded from the register two years in succession. The
borough has not been contested since 1837, and its present MEMBERS
OF PARLIAMENT are Joseph Locke, Esq., and Sir James Weir Hogg,
Bart. The C0RPORATION for 1849-50 is as follows:-

CHURCHES:- St. Michael's, the old parish church, is
inconveniently situated on a bold eminence, half a mile south of
the town, near Littletown farm. It was originally a small
chapel for mendicant friars, but was enlarged about 1482, chiefly
at the expense of the Bishop of Exeter; who also gave the curious
screen which separates the nave and chancel. It has a tower and
five bells, and contains some ancient monuments, and one in memory
of Dr. Marwood, physician to Queen Elizabeth, who died in
1617, aged 105 years. The original parish church is supposed to
have stood in the town, on the site of Allhallows Chapel,
which was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1765, but was
pulled down in 1837, to give place to ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, which was
erected near it, and made the parish church, under the powers of an
act of Parliament passed in 1835. This spacious and elegant
structure of Norman architecture, cost about £7600, exclusive
of about £2400 paid for the purchase of old buildings, land,
&c., and for fencing the burial ground. It was finished and
consecrated in 1838. There was some great defect in the erection of
this noble edifice, as it had to be new roofed, repaired, and
altered, in 1849, at the cost of about £1000. It was erected
and repaired by subscription, and has 1530 sittings, of which 500
are free. It is 132 feet long and 58 broad, and its tower is a
magnificent specimen of the Norman style, rising to the height of
104 feet, and crowned by elaborately worked pinnacles. The organ is
a fine instrument, which cost £400. A beautiful marble
monument, by Bacon, has been erected in the north transept, by Sir
E.M. Elton, in memory of his great-grandfather, James Marwood, Esq.
It is in the form of a Roman altar, surmounted by a vase and the
figures of Justice and Benevolence; with a pelican feeding its
young. The altar-piece, presented by Sir Edward, is a fine copy of
Raphael's picture of the Transfiguration. The pulpit is of Beer
stone, handsomely wrought, and resting on twisted columns. The
rectory, valued in K.B. at £40. 4s. 2d., and in 1831,
at £272, is in the patronage of the Earl of Devon, and
incumbency of the Rev. H.V.P. Somerset, M.A., who has 87 acres of
glehe, and an ancient residence in a picturesque and secluded
situation. The tithes were commuted in 1842, for £632. 9s.
8d. per annum. Service is performed in the old church once a month.
The Rev. B.,M. Gane, is curate; Mr. John Porter,
clerk; and Mr. J.J. Flood, organist.

There are four CIIAPELS in Honiton, belonging to Unitarians,
Independents, Baptists, and Wesleyans. That belonging to
the Unitarians was built in 1776, in lieu of the old Presbyterian
Meetinghouse, founded in 1696. The Rev. Wm. Harris, a Presbyterian
minister, who died here in 1770, was author of the "Lives of Hugh
Peters, James I., Charles II.,, and Oliver Cromwell." Sunday
schools are connected with the church and chapels, and the various
congregations subscribe to the support of several institutions for
the promotion of religion. The town has a Literary and
Scientific Institution, which has a valuable library, and a
long list of subscribers. It has also a talented Choral
Society and a Glee Club; and at the Dolphin Hotel and
the Golden Lion Inn are commodious Assembly Rooms, where
balls, concerts, lectures, &c., are often held. Honiton and
01lery Agricultural Society has a numerous list of members.
Here are two old benefit societies called the "Friends
United" and the "New United Brethren," and in 1848, a
Tradesmen's Friendly Society was established at the Dolphin Hotel.
The East Devon Friendly Society, which has offices here, was
amalgamated with the Western Provident Association, in
November, 1849.

CHARITIES.- For repairing Allhallows Chapel and the school
house, "c., which adjoined it, and for such other public and
charitable uses as the trustees should think meet, Sir John
Kirkham and Elizens Harding, in the 15th of Henry VIII.,
left 17 tenements, &c., in Honiton, and a house and 11A. of
land at Yarcombe, now worth £150 a year, but let for only
£47, on long leases. subject to fines on every renewal of the
leases. One of the houses worth £20 a year, is occupied rent
free by the master of the Grammar School, and another of the same
value was long used as the parish workhouse. The same trustees have
the management of the following charities. HENRY BEAUMONT, in 1590,
left Rapshays farm, (26A.) at Buckerell, and directed the yearly
proceeds to be distributed among the poor of Honiton parish. It is
now let for about £40 per annum. ELIZABETH BEAUMONT, widow of
the above named donor, gave for the same purpose, in 1595, the
Steevely Land, (36A. 3R. 29P.,) in Allott's Isle, now let
for only £17 a year, under a lease which will expire in 1866.
THOS. MARWOOD, in 1617, left for the poor, four small tenements,
now let for £6. 8s. 8d. per annum, subject to fines on the
renewal of the leases. HAYES TRUST, comprises about 10A. of land in
Buckerell parish, purchased in the 16th century with £200,
left to the poor by James Rodge and three other donors. It
is now let for £10 a year. WARWICK LANE TRUST consists of
four tenements, purchased in 1658, with £65 poor's money, and
now let for only £4. 8s. per annum, in consideration of
fines, paid when the 99 years' leases were granted. The BRIDEWELL
HOUSES, purchased with £130 poor's money, in 1675, were
formerly one of the county prisons, and now consist of a
public-house called the Carpenters' Arms, a large Garden, and
several small tenements, worth £30, but let for only
£5. 5s. per annum, on a 99 years' lease in 1805, in
consideration of a fine of £50. STOCKER'S LAND, (18A. 1R.
3P.,) in the parish of Luppitt, was purchased by the feoffees in
1691, with £270 poor's money, of which £100 was left by
Henry Marwood. This land is now let for about £30 a
year. To the general fund arising from the above named
charities, are added the dividends of £300, three per cent.
consols, purchased with unapplied income; and £12 a year from
three Annuities for the support of the schoolmaster, viz.,
£6 and £2, given by JOHN FLEY, in 1614; ad one of
£4, purchased with £80, given by the parishioners, in
1662. The total annual income arising from all these sources is
about £190, of which about £120 is distributed among
the poor parishioners, and the remainder is absorbed in repairing
the buildings, and in other incidental expenses. The GRAMMAR
SCHOOL, sometimes called Allhallows School, has been for many years
conducted as a classical boarding school, but for the use of the
house and schoolroom and the £12 a year above named, the
master is required to teach four free scholars, appointed by the
trustees. Here is a large National School, built in 1829,
and attended by 140 boys and 90 girls; and a British School,
supported by dissenters. The Charity School, which was free
to all the poor children of the parish, and was established by
subscription in 1813, is consolidated with the National School,
together with its endowment of £300, four per cent. stock,
left by the Rev. James How, in 18 16.

ST. MARGARET's HOSPITAL, on the Exeter road, was anciently a
house of lepers, and was refounded by John Chard, in 1642,
for five poor people, and enlarged in 1808 by the erection of four
new houses, so that it is now the residence of nine almspeople, one
of whom is called the governor. It is endowed with 18A. 2R. 27P. of
land, let for about £60 a year. The governor has 3s., and the
other eight inmates have each 1s. per week. Each of them also
receives a donation of 10s. or 12s. at Christmas. It was in the
ancient chapel of this hospital where the legend (see page
365,) says the barrenness of the women of Honiton was miraculously
changed to fertility.

The poor parishioners have £6 a year as the rent of half
of East Rhodes field, (15 ¼A.,) purchased with a £100 left
by Richard Minifie, in 1707. They have also the interest of
£50 left by Eliz. Harris, in 1782.

HONITON UNION comprises the 28 parishes of Awliscombe,
Branscombe, Broadhembury, Buckerell, Combe Rawleigh, Cotleigh,
Dunkeswell, Farway, Feniton, Gittisham, Harpford, Honiton, Luppitt,
Monkton, Northleigh, Offwell, Ottery St. Mary, Payhembury,
Plymtree, Salcombe, Sheldon, Sidbury, Sidmouth, Southleigh,
Tallaton, Upottery, Ven-Ottery, and Widworthy, whieh comprise an
area of 131 square miles, and had 23,891 inhabitants in 1841,
living in 4591 houses; besides which they had 262 empty houses and
38 building, when the census was taken. Their total average annual
expenditure, during the three years preceding the formation of the
Union, was £10,244; but for the year ending Lady-day, 1849,
it was £12,997. 5s. 10¼d., including salaries, county
rates, &c. The Union Workhouse, built in 1830, at the
cost of £5022, is a stone building, with room for about 230
inmates. Ten surgeons are employed by the Union, and the Rev. H.K.
Venn is the chaplain. H.V. Mules, Esq., is the union
clerk; John and Mrs. Coren are master and matron of the
Workhouse; and Wm. Gayler and Francis George Edwards are the
relieving officers. Philip Mules, Esq., is superintendent
registrar, and H. V. Mules, Esq., is his deputy. Mr. John
Knight is registrar of marriages; and Jph. Manley and Edw.
Carter are registrars of births and deaths, the former for
Honiton District and the latter for Ottery St. Mary and Sidmouth
District.

Brian Randell, 6 Mar 1999

Note: The information provided by GENUKI must not be
used for commercial purposes, and all specific restrictions
concerning usage, copyright notices, etc., that are to be found on
individual information pages within GENUKI must be strictly adhered
to. Violation of these rules could gravely harm the cooperation
that GENUKI is obtaining from many information providers, and hence
threaten its whole future.